Textile pads are widely used in flooring applications. A pad is desirable when wood flooring is applied over a subflooring. These pads used in flooring applications serve multiple purposes. They may absorb impact, such as from persons walking on the flooring. They may provide sound deadening, and may provide insulating properties against heat transfer. Pads also may accommodate roughness, unevenness, or other flaws in the subflooring, and may provide a barrier against moisture and dirt. Finally, pads may lessen impact stresses on the flooring to lengthen the life of the flooring and make the flooring appear to be more durable and of a higher quality.
In the related art, textile pads are not used under ceramic flooring. This is because a pad would have to be relatively thin so as to not cause any unevenness in transition areas (i.e., areas of flooring type transition, such as in doorways, etc.). Furthermore, ceramic tiles traditionally must be placed on a solid floor substructure to prevent cracking of the tile or the adhesive or tile grout.
What is needed, therefore, are improvements in methods and apparatus for forming textile pads for a laminate floor underlayment as well as a textile pad which can be used under a ceramic tile floor.